Officials expect good Labor Day crowds with Isaac out of the way

Tropical Storm Lee washed out last year’s Labor Day weekend and kept most of the tourists who did travel to the Emerald Coast indoors.

But Hurricane Isaac is expected to be long gone by the time this year’s holiday weekend starts, and tourism professionals are looking forward to good weather and high occupancy rates.

“Labor Day is great,” said Bruce Craul, chief operating officer of Legendary Inc. and general manager of the Emerald Grande in Destin. “I think we had one cancellation, and they’re going to regret it because it’s going to be a beautiful weekend. The chance of rain is 30 percent like the rest of August.

“It’s business as usual here,” Craul added. “The television always takes these things and sensationalizes it to the extreme, and we don’t listen to that.”

Laurie Hobbs, director of public relations and marketing for Sandestin Golf and Beach Resort, said Sandestin has had some cancellations for Labor Day weekend because of Isaac, but still expects to be at 70 percent occupancy.

“We’ve had less than a couple dozen cancellations, but then we are seeing pickup,” Hobbs said. “Now that the storm track for Isaac has moved to the west and weather conditions are improving, people are booking.”

Although Isaac prompted some tourists to cancel reservations, some good could come from the storm in the long run for lodging properties.

Representatives from Emerald Grande, ResortQuest and Sandestin each said they were reaching out to people in Louisiana to offer them discounts if they decided to evacuate.

In addition to the discounts, ResortQuest will donate a portion of its proceeds from evacuees to relief groups such as the Red Cross.

“That’s just something we traditionally do in a case like this,” said Martin Owen, spokesman for ResortQuest.

Dawn Moliterno, executive director of the Walton County Tourist Development Council, said she was still projecting a strong weekend in South Walton.

“Early on when the storm was first projected to come at us, we did hear that many of them who were staying through this week decided to wait and watch and see what the impact would be, while others yielded and decided to proceed with moving home,” Moliterno said. “The change in the projection of the storm actually produced a high volume of new reservations that were coming from the New Orleans western region.

“It’s too early for us to be able to tell when you wash it all out at the end, what the net effect is, but at this point we’re hopeful and it seems that everybody is still planning to proceed with their holiday plans as originally set forth,” Moliterno added. “We’re just excited to bring in the holiday weekend and not have a major storm coming right at us.”

Isaac also has not prompted many cancellations in Santa Rosa County.

“They don’t seem to be having a problem with reservations being cancelled for the Labor Day weekend,” said Kate Wilkes, executive director of the county’s Tourist Development Council. “People are in a wait-and-see. I think they (lodgers) realize that it will be over and people will still come.”

Although tourists are expected arrive, surf conditions could be an uncertainty.

Local beaches were under double-red flag warnings Tuesday, closing the Gulf of Mexico to swimmers. Tracey Vause, beach safety division chief for Okaloosa County, said he expects double-red flags to continue to fly today.

Officials will re-evaluate the beach conditions on Thursday, he said.

“It depends on how far over land it gets, and there’s just so many variables that are going to influence the size of the surf and the currents, it’s just hard for me to say,” Vause said.